SIGNED BOOKS ON HAND

Reserve your copy now!: signed first editions of Walter Mosley's KNOWN TO EVIL (Penguin, $26.95) will be available at The Mystery Bookstore in March. This is the second release in this New York Times-bestselling mystery series, which is already being hailed as a classic of contemporary noir. Leonid McGill has been hired by New York City's ultimate power broker, Alfonse Rinaldo, the fixer who seems to control every little thing that happens in New York City. What Rinaldo can't handle on his own, McGill doesn't really want to know. But he's a client you can't say no to, and so McGill sets off to track down a young woman for reasons no one will explain to him. Everyone's motives are murky in McGill's world; that, he's used to. What he's not quite accustomed to is his own recent commitment to the straight and narrow, a path that still seems to lead him directly to the city's crookedest corners and down its darkest alleys, where his most unsavory acquaintances become his most cherished allies.
This title is not yet available at The Mystery Bookstore. Please contact us directly to reserve a copy. You may email orders@mystery-bookstore.com or telephone us on our toll-free number, (800) 821-9017.

Lori Armstrong, NO MERCY. Touchstone, $25.00 (signed first edition). The first book in a new series introducing Mercy Gunderson, an Iraq war veteran who's come home on medical leave to her family ranch in South Dakota. She's coping with the recent death of her father and trying to deal with difficult family members when the dead body of an Indian boy is found on her land. Local law enforcement is strangely apathetic, and Mercy takes matters into her own hands when tragedy strikes again.

Lou Berney, GUTSHOT STRAIGHT. William Morrow, $24.99 (signed first edition). The January Discovery Club selection (and Clair’s January favorite) is a caper novel about wheelman Shake Bouchon, who walks out of prison and into more trouble he could have dreamed of. Agreeing to do a favor for a gorgeous Armenian crime boss, he drives a car from L.A. to Las Vegas, to swap it with another gangster in Las Vegas for a mysterious briefcase. In Las Vegas, however, Shake discovers a woman bound and gagged in the car's trunk, and takes a deadly risk to save her life. He realizes that's a bad decision, but has no idea exactly how bad it's going to turn out to be.

Steve Berry, THE PARIS VENDETTA. Ballantine, $26.00 (signed first edition). Former Justice Department operative Cotton Malone, now running a bookshop in Copenhagen, gets an unexpected visit from an American secret service agent who has assassins after him. Surviving a firefight Malone and his new ally run to Malone's friend Henrik Thorvaldsen, a billionaire who believes he knows what's going on: an international cabal of wealthy men are determined to take over the world's economy, with the help of Napoleon's long-missing treasure. Thorvaldsen wants to prevent this, but has more personal motives as well: vengeance for the death of his son, assassinated in Mexico two years before.

Robin Burcell, THE BONE CHAMBER. Poisoned Pen, $24.95 (signed hardcover first edition, 2009); Harper, $7.99 (signed trade paperback reprint, 2010). Stephen's January favorite is the second book in Burcell's Sydney Fitzpatrick series. The FBI forensic artist recreates the face of an unknown mutilated woman, but is quickly dismissed from the assignment. When Sydney's good friend is killed by a suspicious hit and run driver, Sydney presses on and demands answers, not knowing that she'll be on the hunt for an unknown "third key" with a covert government investigator. Her pursuit takes her to Rome's underground tombs, where she becomes embroiled in untangling a Knights Templar treasure that could wipe out life as we know it.

Robert Crais, THE FIRST RULE. Putnam, $26.95 (signed first edition). One of Linda's picks for January; Joe Pike takes center stage again in this book, seeking vengeance for the murder of his former colleague, Frank Meyer, and Meyer's family. The police assume that Meyer did something to put himself and his family in harm's way, but Joe doesn't believe it. He launches his own investigation, with the help of his partner, Elvis Cole, and goes deep into the world of Russian gangs, where the first rule says that a thief must forsake everyone and everything – mother, father, wife, children – for the gang.

Jasper Fforde, SHADES OF GREY. Viking, $25.95 (signed first U.S. edition) Ingrid’s January favorite introduces Eddie Russett, who has an unusual skill. He might be in trouble for proposing a more efficient way of standing in line. He might have been banished to a far-off district to take a chair census as punishment. He might never get his passport back from the authorities, but he can see a great deal of red, so someday he will attain a high status in society and be able to marry into the upper-class Oxblood clan. All he has to do is survive the constant peril of getting tangled up with Jane Grey, a girl with a sharp tongue and deep secrets. Welcome to the Colourtocracy, a place where your status is determined by the part of the spectrum you can see, and the rules are not to be questioned.

Steve Hamilton, THE LOCK ARTIST. Minotaur, $24.99 (signed first edition). This month's Crime Club selection (and Bobby's January favorite) is a standalone from the author of the award-winning Alex McKnight series, and we think it deserves to be a major breakout. Mike is an 18-year-old boy who shouldn't be alive; by some miracle, he survived an unimaginable trauma ten years earlier. The tragedy left him mute, but he discovers an unexpected talent: he understands the secrets of any lock, whether it's a gym locker padlock or a bank vault combination. It's a talent that draws the attention of some dangerous people, and Mike finds himself involved in a life he never wanted, desperate to figure out his way back to the life he dreams of.

Stephen Hunter, I, SNIPER. Simon & Schuster, $26.00 (signed first edition). Swagger examines the evidence in a case that looks almost too perfect: four former 1960s radicals, gunned down by a decorated former Marine Corps sniper who kills himself before he can be arrested. The dead suspect, Carl Hitchcock, was credited with 93 kills in Vietnam, the leading body count among American snipers. But as Bob Lee follows the trail, he finds signs of a sophisticated conspiracy with international implications.

Charlie Huston, SLEEPLESS. Ballantine, $25.00 (signed first edition). In a near-future version of Los Angeles only slightly different from our own, former philosophy student Parker Hass works as an undercover police investigator. A virulent form of insomnia is infecting the population of Los Angeles, and Hass's job is to cut off the illegal trade in the only available remedy, a mysterious drug called Dreamer. The trail leads back to the giant pharmaceutical company that manufactures Dreamer, but the motives are more complex and horrifying than Hass can imagine.

Elizabeth Kostova, THE SWAN THIEVES. Little, Brown, $26.99 (signed first edition). Psychiatrist Andrew Marlowe agrees to treat the renowned artist Robert Oliver, who is arrested at the National Gallery for trying to destroy a painting that depicts the attack of Leda by Zeus, disguised as a swan. As Marlowe probes into Oliver's past, he finds a mystery that reaches back to the 19th century, and a group of French artists there. Because of this books weight, extra shipping charges will apply.

Bob Morris, BAJA FLORIDA. Minotaur, $24.99 (signed first edition). In his fourth adventure, former Miami Dolphin Zack Chasteen is asked for a favor he can't refuse: his old friend Mickey Ryser, dying of cancer, asks him to find his long-estranged daughter, Jen. Jen was last seen on a sailboat to the Bahamas, with some college friends, but the first detective Ryser hired went missing himself. They've heard reports of modern-day pirates working the islands, and Zack's mission will take him from one end of the Bahamas to the other.

Shirley Rousseau Murphy, CAT STRIKING BACK William Morrow, $19.99 (signed first edition) The December Delicate but Deadly Club selection is the 15th entry in the Joe Grey cat mystery series. Tomcat Joe Grey happens upon an obvious murder scene – blood, the smell of a dead human, drag marks – but no body. Elsewhere, a feral cat named Sage sees someone burying a dead body under the floor of a garage that's being remodeled. Sage passes the word along to Joe, who joins with both his feline and human companions to track down a cat-hating serial killer.

Kris Neri, HIGH CRIMES ON THE MAGICAL PLANE. Red Coyote Press, $16.95 (signed trade paperback original) Scam psychic Samantha Brennan doesn't know how to cope with the force of a genuine psychic – or with the fact that these psychic powers reside in the body of an FBI agent. Samantha and FBI Special Agent Annabelle Haggerty join forces in the race to save movie star Molly Claire, who's at the center of a gangland siege.

T. Jefferson Parker, IRON RIVER. Dutton, 26.95 (signed first edition). This third novel in Parker's Charlie Hood trilogy is one of Linda's two favorite books of the month. After the career-changing events of THE RENEGADES, Charlie's working the California–Mexico border with the ATF, trying to stem the "iron river" of handguns and automatic weapons that fuel gang wars on both sides of the national line. Hood sees things that shock him every day, but isn't prepared for the personal connection he'll find south of the border.

Betty Webb, DESERT LOST. Poisoned Pen, $24.95 (signed first edition). Library Journal called this book, the sixth Lena Jones mystery, one of the five best mysteries of 2009. On a stakeout for vandals at a storage yard, Lena discovers the fresh corpse of a woman who wears the conservative clothing of a polygamous wife. She joins forces with Rosella, a former member of a polygamy cult, to find out who this woman was, and why she died. What Lena finds is a culture that discards, exiles, and even kills its young men – because if one man has ten wives, nine men have none.

NOT SIGNED BUT NOTABLE

M.C. Beaton, DEATH OF A VALENTINE. Grand Central Publishing, $23.99 (unsigned first U.S. edition). Hamish Macbeth and his new constable, Josie McSween, not only investigate the murder of a beautiful woman near Lochdubh, but also make their own wedding plans – will Lochdubh's most confirmed bachelor finally tie the knot?

Blaize Clement, RAINING CAT SITTERS AND DOGS. Minotaur, $24.99 (unsigned first edition). In her fifth adventure, pet sitter and former cop Dixie Hemingway befriends a preteen girl, Jaz, who goes missing. Dixie's sometime boyfriend, Lt. Jean–Pierre Guidry, thinks that Jaz may be a material witness to a homicide, and worries that someone's willing to kill to keep her quiet.

James W. Hall, SILENCER. Minotaur, $24.99 (unsigned first edition). Thorn, the Florida PI with a mysterious past, is about to spend his unexpected family inheritance on the purchase of Coquina Ranch, in order to turn it into an environmental preserve. But the owner, Earl Hammond, is shot dead, and Thorn himself is kidnapped and left to die in a sinkhole. Earl's ne'er–do–well son Frisco suspects the two events are related, and races to uncover the truth before Thorn disappears forever.

Joan Hess, THE MERRY WIVES OF MAGGODY. Minotaur, $24.99 (unsigned first edition). It's been too long (almost four years!) since we last heard from the residents of Maggody, Arkansas, and a lot has happened in the meantime; for one thing, police chief Arly Hanks is pregnant. But Mrs. Jim Bob Buchanan is as pushy and delusional as ever, determined to organize a charity golf tournament to boost Maggody's image – except that Maggody doesn't have a golf course, and nobody knows how to play. But the tournament happens anyway, and when a small–town golf instructor wins the big prize (a bass boat) on the first day, it's not a big surprise that he doesn't live to enjoy it.

Ian Rankin, DOORS OPEN. Reagan Arthur Books, $24.99 (unsigned first U.S. edition). Originally published as a serial in the Sunday New York Times Magazine, Rankin's first post-Rebus novel is a gripping heist thriller set in Edinburgh. A software millionaire, a wealthy banker and a college art professor conspire to steal priceless works of art stored in a surplus warehouse; they enlist an art student to create fakes to substitute, and make a deal with a gangster for more serious help. It's a precarious deal, and the twists and turns will surprise even the veteran thriller fan.

Wallace Stroby, GONE 'TIL NOVEMBER. Minotaur, $24.99 (unsigned first edition). Florida sheriff's deputy Sara Cross is called to a fatal shooting; her former partner (and former lover), deputy Billy Flynn, has killed a man during what should have been a routine traffic stop. The dead man has a bag of illegal weapons in the trunk of his car. In New Jersey, aging enforcer Morgan agrees to head to Florida for his boss, Mikey-Mike, to find out what's holding up his drug deal with a new supplier. The two plots merge into a story that is dark and gripping, and is drawing raves from reviewers all over.

[Back to top of the page]

The Mystery Bookstore	1036-C Broxton Avenue Los Angeles, California 90024 Phone: 310/209-0415 \| 800/821-9017 Fax: 310/209-0436
SIGNED BOOKS ON HAND Reserve your copy now!: signed first editions of Walter Mosley's KNOWN TO EVIL (Penguin, $26.95) will be available at The Mystery Bookstore in March. This is the second release in this New York Times-bestselling mystery series, which is already being hailed as a classic of contemporary noir. Leonid McGill has been hired by New York City's ultimate power broker, Alfonse Rinaldo, the fixer who seems to control every little thing that happens in New York City. What Rinaldo can't handle on his own, McGill doesn't really want to know. But he's a client you can't say no to, and so McGill sets off to track down a young woman for reasons no one will explain to him. Everyone's motives are murky in McGill's world; that, he's used to. What he's not quite accustomed to is his own recent commitment to the straight and narrow, a path that still seems to lead him directly to the city's crookedest corners and down its darkest alleys, where his most unsavory acquaintances become his most cherished allies. This title is not yet available at The Mystery Bookstore. Please contact us directly to reserve a copy. You may email orders@mystery-bookstore.com or telephone us on our toll-free number, (800) 821-9017. Lori Armstrong, NO MERCY. Touchstone, $25.00 (signed first edition). The first book in a new series introducing Mercy Gunderson, an Iraq war veteran who's come home on medical leave to her family ranch in South Dakota. She's coping with the recent death of her father and trying to deal with difficult family members when the dead body of an Indian boy is found on her land. Local law enforcement is strangely apathetic, and Mercy takes matters into her own hands when tragedy strikes again. Lou Berney, GUTSHOT STRAIGHT. William Morrow, $24.99 (signed first edition). The January Discovery Club selection (and Clair’s January favorite) is a caper novel about wheelman Shake Bouchon, who walks out of prison and into more trouble he could have dreamed of. Agreeing to do a favor for a gorgeous Armenian crime boss, he drives a car from L.A. to Las Vegas, to swap it with another gangster in Las Vegas for a mysterious briefcase. In Las Vegas, however, Shake discovers a woman bound and gagged in the car's trunk, and takes a deadly risk to save her life. He realizes that's a bad decision, but has no idea exactly how bad it's going to turn out to be. Steve Berry, THE PARIS VENDETTA. Ballantine, $26.00 (signed first edition). Former Justice Department operative Cotton Malone, now running a bookshop in Copenhagen, gets an unexpected visit from an American secret service agent who has assassins after him. Surviving a firefight Malone and his new ally run to Malone's friend Henrik Thorvaldsen, a billionaire who believes he knows what's going on: an international cabal of wealthy men are determined to take over the world's economy, with the help of Napoleon's long-missing treasure. Thorvaldsen wants to prevent this, but has more personal motives as well: vengeance for the death of his son, assassinated in Mexico two years before. Robin Burcell, THE BONE CHAMBER. Poisoned Pen, $24.95 (signed hardcover first edition, 2009); Harper, $7.99 (signed trade paperback reprint, 2010). Stephen's January favorite is the second book in Burcell's Sydney Fitzpatrick series. The FBI forensic artist recreates the face of an unknown mutilated woman, but is quickly dismissed from the assignment. When Sydney's good friend is killed by a suspicious hit and run driver, Sydney presses on and demands answers, not knowing that she'll be on the hunt for an unknown "third key" with a covert government investigator. Her pursuit takes her to Rome's underground tombs, where she becomes embroiled in untangling a Knights Templar treasure that could wipe out life as we know it. Robert Crais, THE FIRST RULE. Putnam, $26.95 (signed first edition). One of Linda's picks for January; Joe Pike takes center stage again in this book, seeking vengeance for the murder of his former colleague, Frank Meyer, and Meyer's family. The police assume that Meyer did something to put himself and his family in harm's way, but Joe doesn't believe it. He launches his own investigation, with the help of his partner, Elvis Cole, and goes deep into the world of Russian gangs, where the first rule says that a thief must forsake everyone and everything – mother, father, wife, children – for the gang. Jasper Fforde, SHADES OF GREY. Viking, $25.95 (signed first U.S. edition) Ingrid’s January favorite introduces Eddie Russett, who has an unusual skill. He might be in trouble for proposing a more efficient way of standing in line. He might have been banished to a far-off district to take a chair census as punishment. He might never get his passport back from the authorities, but he can see a great deal of red, so someday he will attain a high status in society and be able to marry into the upper-class Oxblood clan. All he has to do is survive the constant peril of getting tangled up with Jane Grey, a girl with a sharp tongue and deep secrets. Welcome to the Colourtocracy, a place where your status is determined by the part of the spectrum you can see, and the rules are not to be questioned. Steve Hamilton, THE LOCK ARTIST. Minotaur, $24.99 (signed first edition). This month's Crime Club selection (and Bobby's January favorite) is a standalone from the author of the award-winning Alex McKnight series, and we think it deserves to be a major breakout. Mike is an 18-year-old boy who shouldn't be alive; by some miracle, he survived an unimaginable trauma ten years earlier. The tragedy left him mute, but he discovers an unexpected talent: he understands the secrets of any lock, whether it's a gym locker padlock or a bank vault combination. It's a talent that draws the attention of some dangerous people, and Mike finds himself involved in a life he never wanted, desperate to figure out his way back to the life he dreams of. Stephen Hunter, I, SNIPER. Simon & Schuster, $26.00 (signed first edition). Swagger examines the evidence in a case that looks almost too perfect: four former 1960s radicals, gunned down by a decorated former Marine Corps sniper who kills himself before he can be arrested. The dead suspect, Carl Hitchcock, was credited with 93 kills in Vietnam, the leading body count among American snipers. But as Bob Lee follows the trail, he finds signs of a sophisticated conspiracy with international implications. Charlie Huston, SLEEPLESS. Ballantine, $25.00 (signed first edition). In a near-future version of Los Angeles only slightly different from our own, former philosophy student Parker Hass works as an undercover police investigator. A virulent form of insomnia is infecting the population of Los Angeles, and Hass's job is to cut off the illegal trade in the only available remedy, a mysterious drug called Dreamer. The trail leads back to the giant pharmaceutical company that manufactures Dreamer, but the motives are more complex and horrifying than Hass can imagine. Elizabeth Kostova, THE SWAN THIEVES. Little, Brown, $26.99 (signed first edition). Psychiatrist Andrew Marlowe agrees to treat the renowned artist Robert Oliver, who is arrested at the National Gallery for trying to destroy a painting that depicts the attack of Leda by Zeus, disguised as a swan. As Marlowe probes into Oliver's past, he finds a mystery that reaches back to the 19th century, and a group of French artists there. Because of this books weight, extra shipping charges will apply. Bob Morris, BAJA FLORIDA. Minotaur, $24.99 (signed first edition). In his fourth adventure, former Miami Dolphin Zack Chasteen is asked for a favor he can't refuse: his old friend Mickey Ryser, dying of cancer, asks him to find his long-estranged daughter, Jen. Jen was last seen on a sailboat to the Bahamas, with some college friends, but the first detective Ryser hired went missing himself. They've heard reports of modern-day pirates working the islands, and Zack's mission will take him from one end of the Bahamas to the other. Shirley Rousseau Murphy, CAT STRIKING BACK William Morrow, $19.99 (signed first edition) The December Delicate but Deadly Club selection is the 15th entry in the Joe Grey cat mystery series. Tomcat Joe Grey happens upon an obvious murder scene – blood, the smell of a dead human, drag marks – but no body. Elsewhere, a feral cat named Sage sees someone burying a dead body under the floor of a garage that's being remodeled. Sage passes the word along to Joe, who joins with both his feline and human companions to track down a cat-hating serial killer. Kris Neri, HIGH CRIMES ON THE MAGICAL PLANE. Red Coyote Press, $16.95 (signed trade paperback original) Scam psychic Samantha Brennan doesn't know how to cope with the force of a genuine psychic – or with the fact that these psychic powers reside in the body of an FBI agent. Samantha and FBI Special Agent Annabelle Haggerty join forces in the race to save movie star Molly Claire, who's at the center of a gangland siege. T. Jefferson Parker, IRON RIVER. Dutton, 26.95 (signed first edition). This third novel in Parker's Charlie Hood trilogy is one of Linda's two favorite books of the month. After the career-changing events of THE RENEGADES, Charlie's working the California–Mexico border with the ATF, trying to stem the "iron river" of handguns and automatic weapons that fuel gang wars on both sides of the national line. Hood sees things that shock him every day, but isn't prepared for the personal connection he'll find south of the border. Betty Webb, DESERT LOST. Poisoned Pen, $24.95 (signed first edition). Library Journal called this book, the sixth Lena Jones mystery, one of the five best mysteries of 2009. On a stakeout for vandals at a storage yard, Lena discovers the fresh corpse of a woman who wears the conservative clothing of a polygamous wife. She joins forces with Rosella, a former member of a polygamy cult, to find out who this woman was, and why she died. What Lena finds is a culture that discards, exiles, and even kills its young men – because if one man has ten wives, nine men have none. NOT SIGNED BUT NOTABLE M.C. Beaton, DEATH OF A VALENTINE. Grand Central Publishing, $23.99 (unsigned first U.S. edition). Hamish Macbeth and his new constable, Josie McSween, not only investigate the murder of a beautiful woman near Lochdubh, but also make their own wedding plans – will Lochdubh's most confirmed bachelor finally tie the knot? Blaize Clement, RAINING CAT SITTERS AND DOGS. Minotaur, $24.99 (unsigned first edition). In her fifth adventure, pet sitter and former cop Dixie Hemingway befriends a preteen girl, Jaz, who goes missing. Dixie's sometime boyfriend, Lt. Jean–Pierre Guidry, thinks that Jaz may be a material witness to a homicide, and worries that someone's willing to kill to keep her quiet. James W. Hall, SILENCER. Minotaur, $24.99 (unsigned first edition). Thorn, the Florida PI with a mysterious past, is about to spend his unexpected family inheritance on the purchase of Coquina Ranch, in order to turn it into an environmental preserve. But the owner, Earl Hammond, is shot dead, and Thorn himself is kidnapped and left to die in a sinkhole. Earl's ne'er–do–well son Frisco suspects the two events are related, and races to uncover the truth before Thorn disappears forever. Joan Hess, THE MERRY WIVES OF MAGGODY. Minotaur, $24.99 (unsigned first edition). It's been too long (almost four years!) since we last heard from the residents of Maggody, Arkansas, and a lot has happened in the meantime; for one thing, police chief Arly Hanks is pregnant. But Mrs. Jim Bob Buchanan is as pushy and delusional as ever, determined to organize a charity golf tournament to boost Maggody's image – except that Maggody doesn't have a golf course, and nobody knows how to play. But the tournament happens anyway, and when a small–town golf instructor wins the big prize (a bass boat) on the first day, it's not a big surprise that he doesn't live to enjoy it. Ian Rankin, DOORS OPEN. Reagan Arthur Books, $24.99 (unsigned first U.S. edition). Originally published as a serial in the Sunday New York Times Magazine, Rankin's first post-Rebus novel is a gripping heist thriller set in Edinburgh. A software millionaire, a wealthy banker and a college art professor conspire to steal priceless works of art stored in a surplus warehouse; they enlist an art student to create fakes to substitute, and make a deal with a gangster for more serious help. It's a precarious deal, and the twists and turns will surprise even the veteran thriller fan. Wallace Stroby, GONE 'TIL NOVEMBER. Minotaur, $24.99 (unsigned first edition). Florida sheriff's deputy Sara Cross is called to a fatal shooting; her former partner (and former lover), deputy Billy Flynn, has killed a man during what should have been a routine traffic stop. The dead man has a bag of illegal weapons in the trunk of his car. In New Jersey, aging enforcer Morgan agrees to head to Florida for his boss, Mikey-Mike, to find out what's holding up his drug deal with a new supplier. The two plots merge into a story that is dark and gripping, and is drawing raves from reviewers all over. [Back to top of the page]